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continuations of earlier Chinese practices, customs, and attitudes. And
they predict that this trend will continue, resulting in a form of
socialism or communism distinctly different from that found in any other
country. Another school, however, believes that communism precedes
"Sinism," and that the regime will slowly eliminate traits which once
were typical of China and replace them with institutions developed out
of Marxist thinking. In any case, for the present, although the
Communist government's aim is to impose communist thought and
institutions in the country, typically Chinese traits are still
omnipresent.

Soon after the establishment of the Peking regime, a pact of friendship
and alliance with the Soviet Union was concluded (February 1950), and
Soviet specialists and civil and military products poured into China to
speed its development. China had to pay for this assistance as well as
for the loans it received from Russia, but the application of Russian
experience, often involving the duplication of whole factories, was
successful. In a few years, China developed its heavy industry, just as
Russia had done. It should not be forgotten that Manchuria, as well as
other parts of China, had had modern heavy industries long before 1949.
The Manchurian factories ceased production because, when the Russians
invaded Manchuria at the end of the war, they removed the machinery to
Russia.

Russian aid to Communist China continued to 1960. Its termination slowed
development briefly but was not disastrous. Russian assistance was a
"shot in the arm," as stimulating and about as lasting as American aid
to Taiwan or to European countries. The stress laid upon heavy industry,
in imitation of Russia, increased China's military strength quickly, but
the consumer had to wait for goods which would make his life more
enjoyable. One cause of friction in China today concerns the relative
desirability of heavy industry versus consumer industry, a problem which
arose in Russia after the death of Stalin.

China's military strength was first demonstrated in the Korean War when
Chinese armies entered Korea (October 1950). Their successes contributed
to the prestige of the Peking regime at home and abroad, but they also
foreshadowed a conflict with Soviet Russia, which regarded North Korea
as lying within its own sphere of influence.

In the same year, China invaded and conquered Tibet. Tibet, under Manchu
rule until 1911, had achie